Spooky Story
Have a good time,’ my Mum, Diane, said waving me goodbye. I was 12 and Mum, a long-distance truck driver, was going away for work.
I was going to be staying with mum’s friend Chris and her husband Tom.
But that was great – their twins Karen and Anne,
12, and their brothers, Christopher, 13, and Bruce, 14, were all pals of mine.
Making up five mattresses, we were all going to have a sleepover in the girls’ room. ‘Brilliant!’ I said.
‘By the way, the place is haunted,’ Anne warned.
‘Right,’ I laughed, assuming she was mucking around.
That night, the five of us watched movies until the early hours before turning in.
Suddenly, I heard heavy footsteps going up the stairs.
Who could that be? I thought, getting up to have a look.
I tiptoed out of the room, and as I stood at the top of the staircase, I could still hear the footsteps – but nobody was there.
Just then, the temperature plummeted and I saw a glowing mist, like a milky shadow, coming towards me.
‘Argh!’ I cried, dropping to the floor in fright.
An uninvited guest turned up to Shirley’s slumber party!
It glided past me to one of the other bedrooms, opened the door, went inside, and closed it again.
Shocked, I followed it and then flung the door open!
The shadow had vanished and, to my horror, the room was completely black.
The bed, the furniture – everything had been burnt to a cinder!
Terrified, I ran back to the other kids.
‘I saw a ghost go into the next bedroom!’ I cried.
‘We should have told you not to go out on the stairs,’ Karen said.
‘It’s just the dead man,’ Anne added.
‘Dead man?’ I exclaimed. I didn’t sleep a wink that night and in the morning, I asked my friends’ mum Chris about it.
‘The man who lived here died in a fire in that room. We hear his footsteps going upstairs every night.’
‘What?’ I cried.
‘There’s nothing to be scared about. He won’t hurt you. He started the fire by smoking in bed. Let that be a lesson to you.’
I couldn’t believe she was so laid-back about it!
And I had to stay another three nights while Mum was away.
Each night, I’d hear the same heavy footsteps on the stairs and a creak as the door swung open and shut again.
I was a nervous wreck by the time Mum returned.
She was stunned when I told her about the ghost.
‘I’m never staying there again!’ I said.
Nearly 40 years on, I’ve often thought about that terrifying house.
Then, a few months ago, I drove past and noticed it no longer had a second storey and, in fact, had been turned into a pet store.
I have to go inside!
I thought.
‘I stayed here years ago,’ I told the owner. ‘This place used to be haunted.’
‘It still is,’ she exclaimed. ‘We hear footsteps on the stairs if we’re here late at night. That’s why we took out the stairs and demolished the top storey.
‘But you know what? We still hear the footsteps!’ My jaw hit the floor.
After all these years, that poor man was still climbing the stairs each night to a room that wasn’t even there anymore.
I just hope that one day, he’s able to rest in peace.